K St. flags lobby-law shortcomings

Five years after Congress enacted a sweeping federal lobbying law, K Street is fed up with it.

Most lobbyists believe the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act makes it harder for them to interact with staffers on Capitol Hill and is damaging elected officials’ ability to get informed on legislative issues, according to a new survey of hundreds of professional federal lobbyists.

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POLITICO has an exclusive first look at the survey results, scheduled to be released Wednesday by The George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management, research firm Lobbyists.info and Virginia-based market research firm ORI.

Only about one in five lobbyists said the law, which was intended to foster transparency and dissuade corruption, has improved ethical standards. Fewer than 14 percent said it has improved governance to any degree.

To that end, nearly half of those surveyed argued that the ethics changes have crimped the ability of Congress to gather information to make informed decisions, versus less than 37 percent who said the changes have not.

By an even wider margin — 54 percent to 31 percent — the lobbyists said the changes have hurt Congress when it comes to better understanding different perspectives on legislative issues.

And while a majority of lobbyists surveyed said they believe the law has increased transparency within the industry, only one-third overall said it has made lobbyists more accountable. Roughly the same percentage of Republicans and Democrats agreed.

“They just see this law as another raising of another barrier to them doing their constitutionally protected job,” said David Rehr, the survey’s chief researcher and a former Republican lobbyist who’s now an adjunct professor at GWU. “They feel there’s no overwhelming evidence that the law has achieved the goals of those who enacted it.”

The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, signed in September 2007 by President George W. Bush, stems from a massive influence industry scandal that resulted in former super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff serving prison time and sullying the reputations of numerous lawmakers, congressional staffers and professional influences. Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) also went to jail, and the scandal effectively ruined the political career of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).